AND OTHER FISH THAT WANT SCALES 



they usually are, but get into the soft earth or mud, and there 

 many of them together bed themselves, and live without feeding 

 upon any thing, as I have told you some Swallows have been 

 observed to do in hollow trees for those cold six months : and 

 this the Eel and Swallow do, as not being able to endure 

 winter-weather ; for Gesner quotes Albertus to say, that in 

 the year 1125, that year's winter being more cold than usually, 

 Eels did by Nature's instinct get out of the water into a stack 

 of hay in a meadow upon dry ground, and there bedded them- 

 selves, but yet at last a frost killed them. And our Camden 

 relates, that in Lancashire, fishes were digged out of the 

 earth with spades, where no water was near to the place. I 

 shall say little more of the Eel, but that, as it is observed, he 

 is impatient of cold, so it hath been observed, that in warm 

 weather an Eel has been known to live five days out of the 

 water. 



And lastly, let me tell you that some curious searchers into 

 the natures of fish, observe that there be several sorts or kinds 

 of Eels, as the Silver Eel, and Green or Greenish Eel, with 

 which the river of Thames abounds, and those are called Grigs ; 

 and a Blackish Eel, whose head is more flat and bigger than 

 ordinary Eels : and also an Eel whose fins are reddish, and but 

 seldom taken in this Nation, and yet taken sometimes : these 

 several kinds of Eels are, say some, diversly bred, as namely, 

 out of the corruption of the earth, and some by dew, and other 

 ways, as I have said to you : and yet it is affirmed by some 

 for a certain, that the Silver Eel is bred by generation, but 

 not by spawning as other fish do, but that her brood come alive 

 from her, being then little live Eels no bigger nor longer than 

 a pin ; and I have had too many testimonies of this to doubt the 

 truth of it myself, and if I thought it needful I might prove it, 

 but I think it is needless. 



And this Eel, of which I have said so much to you, may 

 be caught with divers kinds of baits : as namely, with powdered 

 beef, with a Lob, or Garden-worm, with a Minnow, or gut of a 

 Hen, Chicken, or the guts of any fish, or with almost any thing, 

 for he is a greedy fish ; but the Eel may be caught especially 

 with a little, a very little Lamprey, which some call a Pride, 

 and may in the hot months be found many of them in the river 



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